Withering World [MCSM Fanfiction]

EPILOGUE 2

If you really have the mindset of an author, you'll find that the main characters in every story are no more important than the tiniest details that serve the greatest purpose in the plot. You've heard the saying 'An apple a day keeps the doctor away', but in this ending, an enchanted golden apple keeps the Grim Reaper away.

My fellow readers, always remember, if the body's not found, neither is death.

[THIS ENDING WAS A LAST-MINUTE DECISION]

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Lukas

I remember that moment as clear as day.

I was going to die.

There was one more pesk in the way of Petra's chance at life, but with the time I had left, I couldn't accommodate to both her rescue and mine simultaneously.

So it had to be her.

Yes, I chose to release the arrow at the one preventing her escape instead of the ones in pursuit of me. The bone-rattling of the unseen wither skeletons was crescendoing until the warrior's screams overpowered the sound.

"LUKAS, PLEASE, THEY'RE COMING! WHAT THE HECK ARE YOU-"

I abdicated my position as the briefcase wielder, tossing it to her, and commanded her in piercing austerity to run and not turn back. Then I was impaled in the stomach, blood and other fluids gushing out like a water pipe springing an outrageous, morbid leak. Just when I thought that was the worst of my torture, the swarm of mobs pressed in, intensifying the agony I experienced. I was pounced on and pinned with no hope of getting out of there alive. They sunk their fangs into wherever they could over my body, injecting more of their sickness into my system and soon, the pleads for my suffering to cease diminished.

But it was Petra's cry that turned my fight back on.

"LUKAS!"

And my hands scrambled around in my inventory for the apple. Breaths sharp, excruciating and hasty, I almost mangled the edible treasure, having caged it tightly in my fingers. My eyes watered. My deep wound burned.

Since the day she gave it to me, I never thought I'd find the need for it. Not until I got entangled in this emergency.

So I took the bite out of the enchanted golden apple, and everything numbed. The skeletons tried yanking my arm away from my face, but with much struggle, I took another. It required all my strength, hypnosis from the glowing and last cry of energy to bite into it again; although, when I did, that's when everything fell into place.

Its unreal power coursed through my vessels and sealed the breaks in my flesh. I was able to resist and their bites were no longer effective. The muscles in my arms and legs contracted and I hurled them off my back. I could stand.

And more importantly, I could run.

By the time I got up again, Petra was already gone and the skeletons were now hot on my heels once more. The pain departed from me although I knew it wasn't for long. Dreading the time it would return, I wove between trees of a nearby forest, losing every last one of the monsters before stopping at a large oak to devise a plan as the fog thinned.

----

The treehouse, which was the nearest stop I could make, was far from the conditions we left it in. Shelves were emptied, books splayed all over the floors. The desks were upturned, all the bedsheets were tousled and the chests had been laid waste, items inside scattered like confetti blasted from a cannon.